What other people do or say has nothing to do with me. How I act, react, create boundaries, and express my desires are my only responsibilities.

There is no right or wrong here. There is only experience and then choice. We experience what we enjoy or don't enjoy then gather information from this experience in order to grow and evolve.

It is all perfection.

There is no need to create pressure or judgment. We can't do it wrong.

Let's talk about the basics for a moment here. I believe that the purpose of life is expansion of joy. Feeling good and creating good are the most important aims in our life.

Many do not believe this. And many structures in our world do not support fulfilment of joy as the primary aim in life. I also forget this essential truth sometimes. When I forget that we are meant to be joyful beings, I become resistant. Like a veil of smoke, I create the illusion of separation and experience lack.

Experiencing the difficulties and conflict that crop up at times isn't a problem. Remaining there is. Identifying with the illusion of separateness and the lies of unworthiness is what creates the pain, confusion and struggle in our lives.

This is why listening to our feelings is so important. Our feelings are emotional indicators. They operate like an alarm system that tells us when we've come into resistance.

It's easy to pass off our feelings as inconvenient and unnecessary. This is because we've learned not to listen to our feelings. We've learned to judge our feelings rather than to accept the help that they offer.

We all possess an emotional guidance system that is designed to draw us back into joy and connection. This guidance is a sequential stepping or reaching towards the next closest feeling up the scale towards the joy that we are meant to embody.

Abraham-Hicks, author of "Ask and it is Given" (p.114) and founder of the Law of Attraction, offers a snapshot of the emotional guidance scale. Through this tool we can understand where we currently are in relation to joy and see how we can move through the feelings that separate us from joy.

The 22 steps from joy and complete connection to hopelessness/disconnection are:

Joy/Appreciation/Empowered/Freedom/Love

Passion

Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness

Positive Expectation/Belief

Optimism

Hopefulness

Contentment

Boredom

Pessimism

Frustration/Irritation/Impatience

Overwhelment

Disappointment

Doubt

Worry

Blame

Discouragement

Anger

Revenge

Hatred/Rage

Jealousy

Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness

Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness

*Tune in next week to learn more about how we can use this emotional guidance system to bring ourselves back into alignment and steadily move towards the joy we are meant to be.